Fast, Vast, and Diverse: Canada's COVID-19 Vaccine Programs - hosted by the CVPD

This fireside chat was hosted by the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (CVPD) on April 20, 2023.
Canada’s COVID-19 vaccination programs took a unique approach in several ways. During the pandemic, we saw shifts in federal rather than provincial purchasing, speed of authorization and implementation, expanding and changing vaccine recommendations over relatively short time frames, and extremely diverse programs throughout the country despite centralized recommendations from a well-established advisory committee, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI). Looking back over the past three years, what went well and what could have been improved?
In this special fireside chat, we explored this question with two leaders who shaped Canada’s vaccine programs.
Speakers:
Dr. Shelley Deeks is the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health for the province of Nova Scotia, Canada and an Associate Professor in Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University and at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She is the Chair of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), and a member of the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts Polio Working Group. She holds fellowships in Public Health at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Australasian Faculty of Public Health Medicine. She has over 25 years' experience as a public health physician and has worked at all levels of the public health system in Canada, and at the national level in Australia.
Dr. Roman Szumski joined McGill from the National Research Council of Canada, where he has served as the Vice-President of Life Sciences for 16 years. Previously, he worked first as a pathologist, then for life science company, MDS Inc., and he was the founding CEO of Calgary Laboratory Services. From 2020 to 2021, Dr. Szumski was deployed to the Public Health Agency of Canada to lead their efforts related to vaccine acquisition. He has played an important role in the Government of Canada’s fight against COVID-19 and in support of the biomanufacturing and life sciences private sector. Dr. Szumski holds a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill, and a MD-FRCPC degree from Queen’s University.
About the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases (CVPD):
With leadership housed at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, we are developing an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers, educators and public health advocates. Our vision is to catalyze cutting-edge research and education that maximizes the health benefits of immunization for everyone.